Lewis Hamilton bounces back from US GP disqualification to finish second in Mexico but yet again trails champ Verstappen
LEWIS HAMILTON’S end-of-season revival continued with a second-place finish in Mexico.
The Brit, who was second the previous weekend in Austin at the US GP — only to be disqualified for a worn skid-block — was again the best-of-the-rest behind winner Max Verstappen.
The Dutchman has now won 16 of this season’s 19 races in a relentless display of crushing domination.
But there are green shoots of optimism in the Mercedes garage that maybe next year the team will be fighting him for victories.
Verstappen’s victory came as his team-mate Sergio Perez suffered a first-lap crash that left him fighting for his Red Bull future.
And Haas’ Kevin Magnussen had a 140mph shunt into the barriers that saw the race stopped as marshals fixed them.
Verstappen made a great start and split the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who started ahead of him, as they powered into turn one.
He started to inch ahead while his team-mate Perez tried a bold move down the left-hand side of the track.
But there was not enough room for the Mexican, too late on the brakes, leaving Leclerc with nowhere to go.
The Ferrari man was squeezed by Perez and the front wing pierced the Red Bull, ripping open the bodywork and sending the Mexican bouncing into the run-off area, sparking a huge collective groan from the home fans.
He did limp back to the pits but his team decided to retire his car.
The incident left Leclerc with a damaged front wing which played into Verstappen’s hands as he pulled out a 1.5-second lead by the end of the first lap.
Ferrari were the last of the front runners to pit and, when Leclerc stopped for fresh tyres on lap 32, Verstappen had amassed a whopping 17-second lead.
But this race was flipped on its head on lap 33 when Magnussen slammed into the barriers when his rear suspension broke.
Magnussen climbed from his cockpit with a sore wrist but the stewards red-flagged the race to repair the barriers.
Fuming Verstappen snapped over the team’s radio: “That’s a joke! Red flag for what? I saw the car was a bit on fire but it’s already all cleared.”
The stewards opted for a standing restart but Verstappen shot away from the chasing pack as Hamilton took his time to size up a move on Leclerc.
The seven-time world champion took his opportunity on lap 40 into turn one, taking advantage of the DRS to breeze past the Ferrari and into second place.
However, Hamilton was no match for Verstappen’s pace as the Red Bull man left the rest of the field for dust.
Lando Norris produced the drive of the day with a sensational performance from 17th to fifth.
Like Mercedes’ improved performance, McLaren’s late form has been one of the talking points of the season.
Meanwhile, Perez’s DNF will only turn up the heat on speculation that he could get the boot at the end of the year — despite Red Bull insisting they will stick with him.
The Mexican said: “I had a tremendous start and the gap was there.
“I would be really disappointed being on the podium knowing I had a chance for the lead and did not take it.
“I totally went for it. I am very sad with the result but on the other side, I am really proud of myself because I went for it.”
His team-mate Verstappen said: “It’s been incredible. Of course Checo retired on Lap 1 but the crowd stayed and they have been amazing. Incredible.
“We are experiencing an incredible season. Today, we started P3 but the pace of the car was very, very good.
“We tried to do a different strategy to everyone else but unfortunately with the red flag we couldn’t show it, but nevertheless with the hard tyres we were very strong.”
Hamilton said after the race: “I feel fresh, we weren’t having to push crazy hard out there. But this is a great result considering we started sixth.
“Really proud of the team. This is a really difficult couple of weeks and to bounce back after a difficult weekend last weekend with the end result, this is really well done.”